Windsor Star » Penn StateWindsor Starhttp://blogs.windsorstar.com
Windsor StarTue, 31 Mar 2015 22:05:06 +0000enhourly1http://wordpress.com/http://1.gravatar.com/blavatar/58154357a21f0ee0c154f325e88e221c?s=96&d=http%3A%2F%2Fs2.wp.com%2Fi%2Fbuttonw-com.png » Penn StateWindsor Starhttp://blogs.windsorstar.com
Sandusky to tell his story on NBC Mondayhttp://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/sandusky-to-tell-his-story-on-nbc-monday
http://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/sandusky-to-tell-his-story-on-nbc-monday#commentsSat, 23 Mar 2013 22:07:06 +0000http://blogs.windsorstar.com/?p=162659]]>NBC says it will air an interview with former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky Monday on the Today show. NBC says the convicted sex offender will give his account of the encounters that landed him in prison and discuss former boss Joe Paterno. Sandusky is serving a 30- to 60-year prison term for 45 counts of child sexual abuse.]]>http://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/sandusky-to-tell-his-story-on-nbc-monday/feed0Former Penn State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was convicted on June 22, 2012, of sexually assaulting 10 boys over 15 years. A U.S. jury convicted Sandusky on 45 of 48 counts in a child sex abuse case that shocked the nation and rocked the university. NBC says he will appear on the Today Show on Monday. (AFP PHOTO/Centre County Correctional Facility/AFP/GettyImages)postmedianewswsGo Eagleshttp://blogs.windsorstar.com/opinion/go-eagles
http://blogs.windsorstar.com/opinion/go-eagles#commentsMon, 14 Nov 2011 23:18:57 +0000http://blogs.windsorstar.com/?p=10832]]>The players sat in chairs on the stage in the gym, wearing their jerseys, their arms crossed over their chests, looking big and tough, like the gods they were.

Storming from side to side across the stage, like a rabid animal, was the coach, yelling and gesticulating wildly.

The band struck up, the cheerleaders stabbed the air with their pom-poms and the majorettes flung their batons.

This was the spectacle of high school football in the United States.

There was a lot of talk last week, following the firing of Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, about the religion that is college football in the U.S. I felt like I was back in high school.

I graduated from Atlantic High School in Delray Beach, Florida, home of the Eagles, where every Friday during football season, classes were shortened so we could crowd into the gym for the raucous pep rallies. I don’t know what teachers thought about losing class time every week for football. But it wouldn’t have mattered what they thought. Football was king. Of course, there was none of this for the students who made the National Honor Society or played in the band or produced the school newspaper or participated in myriad other extra-curricular activities and teams. Just football.

I knew some of the guys on the team. They were in my classes. Contrary to stereotypes, one was in advanced English with me. He was a nice guy. I suspect he saw the whole circus for what it was. It was the adults, not the players, at least not the ones I knew, who were manic about it.

I returned to Canada after I graduated. I went to McMaster University in Hamilton. There wasn’t much fuss about football at McMaster. It was like junior varsity at Atlantic High School. I didn’t think that was a bad thing.

A couple of years ago, I finally read Friday Night Lights, the Pulitzer Prize-winning book by H. G. Bissinger. It follows the Permian High School Panthers of Odessa, Texas, in their run for the 1988 state championship. It’s a fascinating and devastating account of how the hopes and dreams of an entire town rest on the shoulders of a group of teenagers, and how for many of these kids, the rest of life will never match that three-month football season.

If you want to see just how extraordinary a hold football has over Americans, read this book.

]]>http://blogs.windsorstar.com/opinion/go-eagles/feed0A "God Bless Joe Paterno" sign is seen outside Beaver Stadium before the start of the NCAA football game between Penn State and Nebraska in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal on November 12, 2011 in State College, Pennsylvania. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)winstarjarvis